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“… The restroom is never a neutral place. It is charged with multifaceted implications.”

“… Officially a “hygiene facility”, it is often the least hygienic of all … It is not easy to be pleased by the space itself, maybe the most difficult of all space, (although Jun’ichirō Tanizaki did write a great piece, ‘In Praise of Shadows’, which devoted much to the beauty of Japanese restrooms); the pleasure (with a highly private nature) comes much easier from the activities performed in the space. The private nature of the experience rendered the nature of the space private … It’s not natural to think about others. We are there to mind our own business. Not others’, not to mention what’s going on the other side of the wall.

“… Uni-sex restrooms aside, the existence of sex-specific restrooms rendered everyone an essentially incomplete experience of the space. By protocol, by social consensus, a part of the world is forbidden, often just on the other side of the wall. The restroom of the opposite sex has almost only a theoretical existence and, with rather maybe rare exceptions, it is impossible to verify through “seeing”. In this sense, it basically resembles: the black hole.”

—- Anonymous

When you take a trip to the restrooms, have you ever wondered what it was like through that other door? Maybe the thought has never crossed your mind, but from first experiences to in depth research, here are some of the more controversial facts from Architecture West’s women’s restrooms.

The women’s restroom has a full-length mirror, and the men’s does not. Is this a subtle sexist remark towards women or a slight to men? This could mean that society (and building designers) believe that a full length mirror is more important to women than men. On one hand, this could be an unfair benefit to women. Men can only see from their waist up in the mirror and have no idea how their pants look or even if their shoes are tied, while women get a top to bottom view. On the other hand, designers may be implying that women should be using the mirror in order to maintain their appearance. Either way, one gender is being slighted.

Two additional inexplicable anomalies present in the ever mysterious enigma that is the woman’s bathroom are a random chair placed cryptically in the corner and a rather Delphic space that seems to expand into a great void. What could these two relics possibly mean; what mystical forces may have put these ambiguous artifacts in such a place? Aliens? Gypsies? Religious zealots? Is this a sacred gathering place for a secret society from the times of the ancient? What possible vestige is implied by the creators of these pieces of antiquity? Being a tenured academic with years of research in ancient artifacts and various relics across the globe, if I were to hazard a guess, this chair appears to be some sort of altar. A place of reverence and quiet reflection to ponder life’s many great questions, preemptively before embarking on different journey which requires additional sitting. Regarding the vast expanse of additional space, during ones spiritual endeavors in the bathroom, closed spaces and containment can hinder true intellectual progress on one’s spiritual journeys. In order to have successful and meaningful exploration, free suppression and mental binds, one needs a vast infinite expansion much like the one in the woman’s bathroom.

If you ever accidentally wander into the women’s restroom, which might happen more often than not in Architecture West (since the second and third floor men’s and women’s are switched) you would surely sense you were in the wrong place before relieving yourself. Whether it be the lack of smell, strange objects, or shocked bystanders, there is just a different feel. However varying your thoughts are to these facts and open opinions, the women’s restroom is a different world. Maybe, one you sho­­uld experience yourself (the second floor women’s restroom is the one with the mystical chair).

The brown wooden door with the three letter words that spells out ‘MEN’ is a warning sign to keep out the opposite gender. Only men are allowed to enter; for male it may be a place to escape and have peace and quiet for few moments in a day. Viewing the floor plan, the bathroom looks the same with some changes but one can still be curious of what is between the walls.

Upon entering the men’s restroom there was a feeling of crossing the territory. There was constant fear of a male entering the restroom while a female was in their territory. The restroom did not stink, it was clean, and perhaps the janitor did their hourly cleaning. The major difference was seeing the urinals, and the half-length mirror. The tiles on the floor, wall color was the same as the female restroom. The walls did not have any outlandish graffiti. The overall experience being inside a men’s restroom was fear of getting caught and not the following “unwritten rules”.

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All the girls standing in the line for the Bathroom.

Ever notice the restroom line for the women’s restroom at an event are always inevitably longer. I know as a woman I’ve certainly seen this happen on various occasions.

Through measurement analysis of our own restroom here at the architecture building restrooms, we’ve come to the results that the spaces are relatively equal in size but does square footage really determine equality? We took on further investigation by taking account the number of facilities available in each space. Now here is where the problem occurs. Taking account the number of Urinals in the Men’s restroom along with the stalls, Men seem to have an EXTRA station on each floor of the building making it evident the restrooms don’t accommodate for equal number of Men and Women. Equal accommodation for both genders should be the accurate determination of equality and not just the square footage itself.

Now how can this be resolved? Should we simply enlarge the women’s restroom to allow for an equal amount of facilities? Would the women’s restroom be taken on as a design problem to come up with an alternative solution that allows for both equality of space as well as usage? Or maybe a design solution for a women’s own form of a Urinal be taken on? Or maybe even get rid of the idea of separate restrooms entirely and replace them with unisex restrooms as an alternative?

What exactly did you see in China that you wanted to further engage the natural realm?

China is moving 1.2 million a month from rural China to urban China…largest migration of people in the history of the planet…their per capita of energy use is going up, but they are still using about six times less of energy per capita than we do…we are setting an awful example to the rest of the world…so I saw in China both the immediate capacity for us to be energetic and scientific and rigorous and sustainable, and on the other hand, this huge demand, the reality of a planet in peril…how is this going to be fixed?

New to this year is the portfolio workshop series, a joint venture sponsored by AIAS and NOMAS. At the end of last fall semester, I presented the idea of creating a portfolio class. Throughout my time as an architecture student, I have seen copious amounts of anxiety in my peers when it comes to the topic of portfolios, so I decided it was time our college needed a class. I initially proposed to have a workshop every week, but we reduced it to a three part series to better “tease” the possibility of a future class and actually gauge how much interest there was in the topic. After the impressive showing to the first workshop featuring Jennifer Bonner’s presentation on graphic design, it was obvious that students needed direction.

You know what is awesome? Being part of a group, a community. Knowing the cues, the references, the conversational crutches (Did you go to the game this weekend? How’s the project going? Do you know if they are ever going to release the elective list for this/next semester?). Do you know what is even more awesome? Losing every last bit of that.